Employee Safety and Health

Employee Safety and Health

PART 1 (i)

Occupational Hazard

An occupational hazard is a thing or situation with the potential to harm a worker. Occupational hazards can be divided into two categories: safety hazards that cause accidents that physically injure workers, and health hazards which result in the development of disease. It is important to note that a "hazard" only represents a potential to cause harm. Whether it actually does cause harm will depend on circumstances, such as the toxicity of the health hazard, exposure amount, and duration (American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 2003). Hazards can also be rated according to the severity of the harm they cause - a significant hazard being one with the potential to cause a critical injury or death (Zenz, 1994).

Slips and Trips

Slips and trips are common causes of injury within DEECD workplaces. Slips mostly occur when the heel of a person's shoe slides forward and doesn't grip with the floor. The floor surface, the type and the make up of the shoe and the presence of contaminants, such as a water spill, increase the risk of slipping. Trips are mostly caused by objects on the floor that impede a person's path (Cullen, 2002).

Slip and trip accidents can happen for a number of reasons, but all too frequently we jump to conclusions about why they happen rather than really looking for the true cause or, we decide that it is just one of those things and do nothing.

The following should help you to understand what causes a slip or trip and give you some ideas on what you can do to stop accidents from happening again. What you may find is that there are a number of options open to you that are quite straightforward and relatively easy to implement (Woods, 2002).

Falls from Height

Many of the activities carried out in ports could lead to a fall from height. These activities may be during routine operations or during one-off maintenance activities. In ports, the added hazard of working near water means a fall may lead to the risk of drowning (David, 2001).

Access to and from vessels by accommodation ladders and gangways

Container top working - lashing and unlashing containers, use of slewing jib cranes

Access to and from places of work on board vessels (holds, hatches, decks etc)

Falls from vehicles during loading/unloading and sheeting

Falls from car transporters

Maintenance work

Unloading some types of cargo, such as pipework, timber packs etc can result in open edges from ships decks, passages and from the cargo itself

Working adjacent to open edges of docks, wharves etc

Many work activities involve working at height. Working from ladders, scaffolds and platforms are obvious examples, but there are many more activities where people are required to work at height. Examples include working on roofs and over tanks, pits and structures. Even changing a ceiling light in an office involves working at heights (Derr, 2002). Slips, trips, and falls constitute the majority of general industry accidents. They cause 15% of all accidental deaths, and are ...